High school coaches and athletic trainers watch heat and humidity

Heat and hydration will be a focus as high school football teams across the state begin official practice. Temperatures are expected to be moderate by August standards, but certified athletic trainers will be moderating heat and humidity throughout the workouts.

Heat and hydration will be a focus Friday as high school football teams across the state begin official practice. Temperatures are expected to be moderate by August standards, but certified athletic trainers will be monitoring heat and humidity throughout the workouts.

N.C. High School Athletic Association rules require teams to have five days of acclimatization before beginning body-to-body contact.

Players are required to have two days in helmets, shirts, shorts and shoes before wearing shoulder pads. The players practice with shoulder pads on days Nos. 3, 4 and 5, but cannot have any body-to-body contact until the sixth day when players may wear full uniforms.

The days count for each individual, not for the team. A player who misses a practice must have five days of practice before body-to-body contact. Each player must have three days in full uniform before participating in a scrimmage or game.

“You have to think about the kid who has moved in. We want to do everything we can to keep the players safe,” said Apex coach Joe Kilby.

Enloe, and most area programs, have held voluntary workouts throughout the summer. Players could wear helmets and shoulder pads in those workouts, but pads come off at the start of official practice.

“They are good rules,” said new Enloe coach Steve Johnson, who is starting his 30th season on the sidelines. “You are always concerned about a kid who is coming out who may not have had much work in the summer. You want to err on the side of caution. Two days without pads isn’t that big of a thing.”

Green Hope coach Kwame Dixon’s players don’t wear pads in the summer so the five days of acclimatization will be a continuation of what the team did in the offseason.

“We use the summer for conditioning and acclimatizing,” Dixon said. “We keep doing what we’ve been doing, building toward the season.”

Players will be given unlimited water at all times and water breaks are mandatory.

There have been no heat-related fatalities among high school players in the country during the past two years, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina.

There were 17 fatalities among the approximate 1.1 million high school football players in the country in 2013. Eight high school players died as a result of direct contact during the season and nine died of indirect events, including eight heart-related deaths.

The reduction in heat related fatalities is notable. There were five heat stroke related deaths involving high school football players in 2011.